INDIANAPOLIS – The 2019 USA Diving Senior National Championships kicked off Sunday with competition in mixed synchronized events. Briadam Herrera (Miami, Fla.) and Lauren Reedy (Rochester Hills, Mich./Columbia, Mo.) won mixed synchronized 3-meter, and Zach Cooper (Greenwood, Ind./Miami, Fla.) and Olivia Rosendahl (Los Angeles/Evanston, Ill.) won mixed synchronized 10-meter to earn the opportunity to represent the United States at the FINA World Championships this summer.
Herrera and Reedy scored 294.81 points to pick up the mixed synchronized 3-meter title. Tyler Downs (Ballwin, Mo./Indianapolis, Ind.) and Maria Coburn (Austin, Texas/Tucson, Ariz.) were second at 289.08, and Noah Duperre (New Albany, Ohio) and Bridget O’Neil (Southlake, Texas) won bronze with 280.05 points.
Herrera and Reedy were in second place and 10.23 points behind Coburn and Downs heading into the last round, but they had an edge over their opponents with their final dive. They would be performing a front 2 ½ with two twists, which carries a degree of difficulty of 3.4 — four-tenths higher than the dives their opponents were doing in the last round.
“It’s a harder dive, so we knew we could catch up. We just had to hit,” Herrera said.
Reedy and Herrera scored 74.46 points on the dive, enough to move them ahead of Downs and Coburn, who closed out their list with 58.50 points on a back 2 ½ pike.
“We knew it was close, and we knew we had to put it down. We set the list up that way on purpose. We just had to do two good dives together and let the DD take care of giving us an edge. It was enough,” Reedy said.
Cooper and Rosendahl finished with 268.80 points to win the mixed synchronized 10-meter title. Quinn Henninger (Denver, Colo.) and Isabel Gregersen (Arvada, Colo.) were second at 249.03, and Max Weinrich (Brookeville, Md.) and Sophia McAfee (San Marino, Calif.) won bronze with 242.46 points.
Cooper and Rosendahl led by just 2.64 points heading into the final round and finished strong with 68.16 points on a back 2 ½ with 1 ½ twists to secure the victory.
“It was a fun event. Olivia and I just got together last week, and it was really fun diving with her. It turned out really well for us,” Cooper said.
The USA Diving Senior National Championships continue through May 26. Monday’s competition features preliminaries and finals in women’s synchronized 10-meter and men’s synchronized 3-meter. The 2019 USA Diving Senior National Championships is part of the 2019 Team USA Champions Series, presented by Xfinity. The champions series showcases numerous Olympic sports throughout the year, highlighting the year-round quest of Team USA athletes to compete at the Olympic Games.
Results
Mixed Synchro 3m
1. Briadam Herrera (University of Miami) / Lauren Reedy (Unattached), 294.81;2. Tyler Downs (RipFest) / Maria Coburn (), 289.08;3. Noah Duperre (Ohio State Diving Club) / Bridget O’Neil (GC Diving), 280.05;4. Meghan Obrien (The University of Texas) / Jacob Cornish (The University of Texas), 278.40;5. Connor Watling (Carolina Diving Academy) / Joslyn Oakley (Carolina Diving Academy), 216.30;
Mixed Synchro Platform
1. Zach Cooper (University of Miami) / Olivia Rosendahl (Unattached), 268.80;2. Quinn Henninger (Mile High Dive Club) / Isabel Gregersen (Mile High Dive Club), 249.03;3. Maxwell Weinrich (Montgomery Dive Club) / Sophia McAfee (Unattached), 242.46;